Putin Welcomes U.S. Withdrawal From Syria as ‘Correct’

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President Vladimir Putin of Russia said he agreed with the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria, but also expressed skepticism that the United States would do so.CreditCreditYuri Kochetkov/EPA, via Shutterstock

MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday hailed the decision by President Trump to withdraw United States forces from Syria, calling it “correct” because the American troops were not needed.

Mr. Putin’s praise came a day after Mr. Trump said he was ordering the withdrawal because the United States military had achieved its goal of defeating the Islamic State militant group in Syria. Given the unfinished business on the ground in Syria, however, the move was a surprise to many, including some senior presidential military and diplomatic advisers in Washington.

The decision has been criticized, even among Republicans, as abandoning Kurdish allies in the face of a hostile Turkey and a still dangerous Islamic State, as well as leaving Syria open territory for the geopolitical ambitions of Russia and Iran.

Mr. Putin’s response came during his annual news conference, a marathon, four-hour affair during which he suggested several times that Mr. Trump was being thwarted by those who did not accept his victory as president.

He suggested that his problems in arranging a second meeting with Mr. Trump after their July summit in Helsinki stemmed from domestic American opposition, and he predicted the interference was only going to get worse.

“Now, the majority in Congress will change and one can project with 100 percent certainty that there will be new attacks launched against the incumbent president, and whether he will be able to launch a direct dialogue with Russia, I don’t know,” Mr. Putin said.

Mr. Putin said he broadly agreed that the Islamic State, sometimes known by the acronyms ISIL or ISIS, had been defeated in Syria, although analysts estimate it still commands a force of 15,000 fighters. “With regards to the victory over ISIL, on the whole I agree with the president of the United States.”

The Russian leader expressed skepticism, however, that the United States would follow through on Mr. Trump’s pronouncement, noting that the government had similarly pledged to pull out of Afghanistan by 2014 but still stations forces there.

“We don’t see any signs yet of the withdrawal of U.S. troops,” he said. “How long has the United States been in Afghanistan? Seventeen years? And almost every year they say they’re pulling out their troops.”

Mr. Putin reiterated the Kremlin position that American forces have no legal right to be in Syria, in that they were neither invited by Damascus, as the Russian forces were, nor authorized by the United Nations Security Council.

The American decision to withdraw represented at least a tactical victory for Mr. Putin, who intervened in Syria in September 2015 with the primary goal of re-establishing Russia as a power to be reckoned with in the Middle East, analysts said.

“For now, it is really good news for Putin,” said Konstantin von Eggert, a political commentator on the independent Russian TV station Dozhd. “Putin’s main goal from Day 1 of his intervention was to establish himself as the global authority to prevent regime change. In this he has succeeded.”

But Mr. Putin still faces some challenges in Syria. The Islamic State, while mostly lying low, remains a potentially potent guerrilla force in the eastern desert region, he and others noted. With the Americans out of the way, he will inherit that fight, which he largely avoided while propping up Mr. Assad’s control over most of western Syria.

“ISIS is not defeated. I am sure the Russians know that very well,” said Yuri Barmin, a fellow at the Russian International Affairs Council who specializes in Middle Eastern affairs. “If the Americans are not there to fight it, then who will? It will have to be Russia.”

The American presence also helped to glue together a Kurdish-Arab alliance in the east that is likely to unravel in its absence, he said.

The withdrawal could present problems in the western theater in the Syrian conflict as well. Not only will it remove the hurdle preventing Iranian forces from advancing unimpeded down the road from Iraq into Syria, but it could also fuel ambitions within the Syrian and Iranian forces to capture Idlib province, the last holdout of the armed opposition.

That in turn could cause problems with Turkey, which has supported the opposition and is no friend to Russia’s client, President Assad.

Any surge in fighting would also puncture the calm that Russia has sought to establish in order to push the troubled political process forward and get others on board with talks about money for reconstruction, Mr. Barmin noted.

For now, however, Mr. Putin savored the moment, using the news conference to hit on a favorite theme: that Russia is a pocket of stability compared with the disintegrating West. He said the Anglo-Saxon world was undergoing “tectonic shifts” with both the election of Mr. Trump and the vote by Britons to leave the European Union, or Brexit.

“Trump has won, which is an obvious fact, but not everyone is willing to accept this victory,” Mr. Putin said. “They have been doing their utmost to delegitimize their president.”

Britain faced similar problems with the Brexit referendum, he said. “No one recognizes the results, and the democratic procedures have been unraveling,” he said.

Russia has been accused of manipulating both the 2016 American election and the Brexit referendum through social media and, possibly, through illicit campaign cash, but Mr. Putin made the statements without any apparent irony, nor did he refer to the accusations.